1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to safety equipment, and specifically to a carriage arm adapted for attachment to a safety hat to support a miner's lamp or the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the prior art, it is well known to attach lamps to safety hats or helmets, particularly in the mining industry. In the case of miners' lamps, the traditional location of the miner's lamp is on the front of the miner's helmet. This is shown in numerous previous patents, such as for example Canadian Pat. Nos. 80,858, 113,677, and 1,101,755, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,199,802, which are cited for general interest rather than for specific relevance to the present invention.
The problems with the traditional location for the lamp are numerous. In mining, the traditional location provides fairly good illumination for a rock face of from ten to thirty feet away from the miner. However, for close-up work such as that performed by mechanics, electricians, engineers, etc., the traditional location is less than satisfactory, since the cone of the illumination tends to overshoot the focus of the worker's attention. As a result, the worker frequently resorts to removing the lamp from the hat, and holding it in one hand to illuminate the work location. Frustration and inefficiency are inevitable results, particularly if the work requires the use of both hands. Minor injuries due to inadequate lighting in such situations are extremely common, and in fact are presently considered to be almost an inevitable part of underground work.
In addition to the problems of the traditional lamp location in illuminating close-up work, there is an even more serious problem in illuminating the ground in front of a miner when he or she is walking in the mine. Slip and fall injuries in mines are numerous, and it is well documented that inadequate lighting is a factor in many such accidents. The miner must either walk with the ground not directly illuminated, or must walk with his or her head pointed downwardly, or must remove the light from the helmet and point it by hand. None of these is a satisfactory solution.
One solution which has been attempted is to increase the candlepower of the lamps. This does not attack the root of the problem, however, and the increased candlepower also produces increased glare. Glare is a problem at the best of times.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a lamp carriage arm for attachment of a lamp to a safety hat to avoid some of the problems associated with the prior art.
It is a further object of the invention to provide improved safety hat mounted lighting for miners and others.